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Pope Benedict XVI visits New York
On Sunday night, April 20, 2008 German-born
Pope Benedict XVI concluded a three-day-visit to New York City with
a ceremony at Kennedy Airport led by Vice President Dick Cheney.
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church had arrived in New York
on Friday morning.
After being greeted at JFK airport by Cardinal Egan, head of
the New York Archdiocese, Benedict XVI was flown by helicopter
directly to the United Nations where he addressed the General
Assembly.
The Pope stressed the importance of human rights as the basis
for ending war and poverty. He supported the intervention of the
international community if states are unable to protect its own
populations from sustained violations of human rights, provided
that the interventions be based on the United Nations Charter
and other international instruments. According to the pope, there
are universal values that transcend the cultural, ethnic or ideological
diversity and those values are at the heart of every commitment
to promoting justice and peace while resisting violence, terrorism
and war. Benedict’s speech at the UN was widely regarded
as the political highlight of his visit to the US.
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Friday afternoon, Benedict met with Jewish clergy
at the Park East Synagoge, the first papal visit to a synagoge in
the US. He commended the Jewish community for making a valuable
contribution to the life of New York City building bridges of friendship
with other religious groups.
Saturday morning Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at St. Patrick’s
cathedral, symbolic seat of American Catholicism. The two hour long
service was attended by nearly 3.000 priests, deacons and religious
people as well as several prominent guests such as former New York
Mayor Rudolph W. Guiliani. Thousands of spectators lined the streets
outside St. Patrick’s hoping to get a glimpse of the pope.
Benedict expressed his hope that “this will will be a time
of purification for each and every particular church and religious
community and a time for healing”, an obvious reference to
the clergy sex-abuse scandal that had rocked the U.S.-Roman Catholic
church recently.
After the Mass, Pope Benedict XVI rode from the cathedral to 72nd
Street in the Popemobile, all along the way being cheered by a large
crowd.
Later on Saturday, the pope met with disabled children and young
people at St. Joseph’s seminary in Yonkers.
Sunday was marked by Benedict’s morning ceremony at ground
zero. The pope blessed the World Trade Center site and prayed for
peace. Calling ground zero a scene of incredible violence and pain,
he met with 24 rescue workers, survivors and relatives of 9/11 victims,
selected out of 1.100 people whose names were sent in. Cardinal
Egan read each of the 24 names giving the pope a brief description
of the family member lost.
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Concluding Benedict’s visit to New York was the celebration
of a Mass at Yankee Stadium attended by nearly 60.000 worshippers
on Sunday afternoon. It was the largest public event of his tour and
to most faithful the highlight of the pope’s visit. The atmosphere
inside the stadium was festive and excited. “It helped reaffirm
our faith”, said some worshippers, to others “it was thrilling
to be in a state of religious communion with so many other faithful”
and made them “feel like part of the family of Catholics”.
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April 20, 2008 |
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